die young - survival

die young is one of those bands that have a massive 7" back catalogue. if i can count there are eight 7" releases, either as a split or as a solely die young output. technically i have four of them including 'survival', but i like to look at it as if i had five of them. the european version of 'chosen path' came as a one-sided 12", so i won't bother with the u.s. 7" edition.

anyway, 'survival' was their last release before the now recalled split-up six years ago. also this marks their return to surprise attack records, through which they also put forth their split with 7 generations from 2005. i got my hands on this clear copy by shopping some vinyl over at per koro distro. don't have to tell you that it was a pleasure to order, as always indeed.

musically these are seven short blasts of eruptive metallic hardcore with a political and socio-critical message.one of my favourite releases of the band. you can listen to and even read along to the lyrics of this sucker right here. surprise attack did a limited run of 300 copies and, as far as i know, all coming on clear vinyl. surprise attack records. 2009.

prayer for cleansing - the tragedy

when i was doing my between the buried and me series two months ago, gathering information on the net, i stumbled upon prayer for cleansing several times. i already had a vague idea of what they sounded like from the 'old days', a.k.a. myspace. but i never drew the connection to btbam. they were kind of the forerunner band, sharing two members that would go on founding btbam, with btbam vocalist tommy among them.

the flame of my interest was now lit and i headed over to the tube to check some music. the first song i checked out was 'salvation'. in a way it sounded familiar and i really liked it. after a quick discogs search i found a seller from finland offering 'the tragedy' 7" for a reasonable price. i pulled the trigger and here we are.

there are three songs on this 7", the first one, 'the closet', is a song from the vault that the band re-recorded. the lyrical story to it is pretty heavy stuff. it's about a friend of the singer david anthem, who comitted suicide. david found said friend hung in the closet. boy, that story gives me a hollow feeling in the belly.

song two was specifically written for this farewell release and 'salvation' is a cover of the cranberries' song of the same name. that's why it sounded familiar! despite my usual refusal of cover songs, this one is real good. the whole 7" is. really like it. to get a hold on their full length will be quite difficult though. well, time will tell. second press on opaque mint green out of 516 copies. surprise attack records/ war torn records/ southern empire records. 2004.

die young - 7 generations split

since i am in posession of die young's debut record 'graven images' i loosely try to get my hands on their other stuff whenever i get the chance to. i bought their 'loss' 7" last year at underdog store in cologne and here i was able to score their split with 7 generations on ebay for pretty cheap.

the die young song on this is the quality you expect from a die young song. fast and angry metallic hardcore. the second song on their side, 'degradation', is a gorilla biscuits cover. 7 generations, the band this split is shared with, was unknown to me but obviously they released two more 7"es on new eden records and even a full length on new age records in the past decade of the century. their facebook page seems still active though. their second song 'lie' is a downcast cover.

the 7" came out on surprise attack records. a label that was unkown to me too. but i know a handful of their releases checking their roaster. more die young stuff basically. i don't know much about this pressing. only the obvious colour, opaque orange. surprise attack records. 2005.

by the way die young released a new ep this week, called 'chosen path'. ugly and proud records handled things and you can order it here. naturally i already have my copy and i'll post about it the coming week.